No solution to hideous army hazing in Russia

25.03.2011

The number of crimes in the Russian army has increased considerably. Army hazing is the most common one of them. The crimes committed by so-called national gangs are also extremely concerning. Officials from the Office of the Military Prosecutor said that young people in Russia still dodge the army service and may even commit suicide if they have to enter the army service.

More than 500 crimes have been reported in the Russian army since the beginning of 2011, Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky stated Friday. Over 20 servicemen have been crippled and two men were killed during only two months of the current year. Such a negative trend is based on the growing number of conscripts and on the defective command, Fridinsky said.

"The number of violent crimes has been increasing in the army steadily during the recent 18 months. In 2010, their number increased by 16 percent. Thousands of servicemen suffered from violence, tens of them were severely injured, and there were lethal outcomes too," the Chief Military Prosecutor said.

Every fourth crime in the army is connected with illegal actions against comrades-in-arms, Interfax reports. "It is mostly army hazing in the military community that causes people to dodge the service and even commit suicides," Fridinsky said.

The number of such crimes among this category of servicemen increased in 2010 in practically all troops and military formations. Collectively with violent crimes, they make up nearly a half of unlawful acts committed in the army, Fridinsky stated.

According to the official, the situation is unfavorable most in the military units of the Central military district, as well as in the Eastern and the Western military districts.

"We believed that a reduction of the service term from two to one year will give a result, that servicemen will no longer divide themselves into "young" and "old" soldiers. It didn't happen. The gradation into the weak and the strong still remains," the prosecutor said.

Fridinsky urged military officials to take measures to struggle against nationality-based army violence. "Military men of certain ethnic groups try to obtrude their behaviors upon the servicemen of other nationalities," the prosecutor said.

The official reminded that negative consequences of such actions in 2010 in the Central military district and on the Baltic navy evoked a wide response in the general public.

In particular, on the Baltic navy, a group of conscripts from Dagestan were bullying their comrades-in-arms of other nationalities. One day, the Dagestanians beat them and made them build the word ‘Kavkaz' with their bodies on the floor. Stories about a mutiny among Muslim soldiers were reported last autumn from the Perm region of Russia. In August, a video of massive fight between Russian and Dagestanian conscripts appeared on the Internet.

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